and. this is why you should care only. france pushes to retake mali from islamist militants as battles rage across the country this while the number of victims in the algerian hostage crisis triggered by the campaign rises to forty eight. the german chancellor's ruling coalition saw first defeat in a key regional vote. on the limo pulls christian democrats lose ground to the social democrats opposition in regional elections. and president barack obama officially begins his second term in office with many waiting to see if he will deliver on numerous promises and domestic foreign issues

. five from our studios in the central moscow you're watching r t with me and he said now i could have you with us it's two pm here in the russian capital eleven am in years to our top story in twenty five more bodies have been found in the wake of the algerian desert crisis bringing the total number of confirmed hostage deaths to forty eight overall more than eighty people have been killed during the four day standoff between the country's security forces and militants now a jury of says they've arrested five suspected islamist attackers after earlier reports that all thirty two hostage takers had been killed in the operation to end the siege well as many as twenty workers still remain unaccounted for as foreign governments try to track down their missing. it assumes an al qaeda libyan i should

say al qaeda linked group claimed they are behind the attack which they say was a revenge for french intervention in neighboring mali heavily armed insurgents raided the plant on wednesday with algeria as initial response drawing criticism from western nations as r.t. is probably boyko reports of a campaign in mali which sparked the hostage situation appears to be a part of the french geopolitical agenda. to do always but it's terrorism was about to overwhelm the friendly country the terrorism that threatens not just all of west africa but also the entire world. he's vowed that france won't stop its intervention in mali until islamic extremism in the country is stamped out the military has announced that it's going to be sending more troops but the total set to exceed two hundred thousand the stated goal to help the government in bamako drive out his list insurgents before the francoise alarms talk of freedom and

democracy critics say the french government you see as a for the military offensive could be linked to other elements u.a.d. these fronts. and many people say a huge cost is it's a huge factor in its economy and it's something that not only mali but specifically niger and other amazing parts where the tour people reside. sits on top of almost every single light bulb in france runs on electricity generated by nuclear power power relies on a steady flow of here raney and so you don't have to be a nuclear physicist to figure out that to keep all these bright lights on the french government depends on a steady flow of the precious natural resource but molly says micio learned it's not about power or money so that you know security this is nothing to do with any political issue from a different time if we are defending your government or business into. which

government which business. some have their suspicions. or to approach energy. is. the second largest ukrainian mining plant in the world next to vali share cars to extract in this uranium is going to be very cheap as a third world very cheap france is playing a very dangerous game and after the french military offensive reportedly sparked a deadly hostage crisis in algeria light bulbs are beginning to go off in the heads of ordinary citizens to pull out almost. time for intervention if it is to fight terrorists but it's got to be for good reasons to know that it's for raw materials that are in mali gas oil diamonds and gold already. they don't think about democracy well we have made paris

a huge target and from such a target for terrorism. at least but with the prospect of an untapped natural resources needed to keep fronts eliminated political analysts say that for a promise to stop playing the products of former colonies isn't going to be fulfilled anytime soon playboy can see paris. well the french defense minister has said quote the goal is the total reconquest of mali let's now see if france can avoid a drawn out campaign as president francois hollande hopes for at the start of this intervention it would take a look at them out we can see that al-qaeda linked rebels and local tore against surgeons are in control of the country's north that's this yellow colored here that area is as big as france itself now some of the weapons used by mali insurgents actually came from the french led overthrow of the gadhafi regime here in. libya

france and south airdrops arms to the libyan rebels while gadhafi is arsenal was also raided after his fall and now there are concerns about libyan smugglers taking more arms through algeria and they're in to mali well this could make it difficult for france to fully secure the area in a short amount of time as the president hopes international relations professor mark almond says the current situation in mali could lead to even further on ras across the region we're getting a kind of and i look into this problem as a kind of backwash from that intervention because you have not already through what's going to happen if you overthrow gadhafi but you don't actually put anything stable in its place quite the contrary spreads and similarly in mali the argument is that france is intervening to stop chaos but the risk must be from what we've seen with interventions before that the french intervention will actually tend to send recalls and disorder further around the region and nobody seems to think that

perhaps organized groups can come from some of the mali it seems they have of course nearby libyan border libya is as i say central to all this problem because all the a lot of weapons it's been produced by the quest to get off the regime but also for the complete failure to establish any kind of real state you have essentially all ords operating in different parts of libya german chancellor angela merkel's party has lost a key regional election marking another setback for the ruling coalition it means marco will have to struggle to be reelected as the september vote will put her politics to the test artist peter all of our reports now from berlin on how her popularity is dwindling at home and abroad. it's the thirteenth setback in local elections that angle merkel's christian democrat party and their coalition partners the free democrats have suffered it's also more importantly the fifth the

fifth state government which they've lost to the social democrats since two thousand and nine this vote in lower saxony which is the fourth most populous state in germany it seemed very much as a bellwether of opinion and it was incredibly tight well it was by one seat and what it does mean though even by the smallest of margins the social democrats while they smell blood heading into the general election their candidate for the chancellorship steinbrück said this well this shows that a change of government and power is possible this year what's interesting when you look at this particular particular local election is the euro zone debt crisis really didn't come into it this was a local election where people were voting on local issues now it's in that area where mrs merkel is starting to show some weaknesses as it were and her christian democratic party and their coalition partners but she still has this personal appeal as the leader because of what she's done for the eurozone crisis but of

course that isn't mirrored when you look around the rest of europe particularly in countries like greece where we've seen burned in effigy and even compared to adult hitler because the greek people they see angela merkel as the main person behind the austerity that they're having to live through so her popularity abroad personally isn't particularly great when it comes to the eurozone crisis however germans are happy with the way that she's managed this crisis and managed germany's economy throughout it but as i say it's going to come down to whether she can convince the german people that she's the right person to manage german interests at home as well as those abroad whether she can win not third term towards the end of this year. in other news japan's foreign ministry has launched an official protest with china after three of its ships were sighted in the east china sea near just feuded islands it comes after beijing slammed washington's position on the conflict urging it to be careful with its words and maintain peace in the region

now the u.s. warned it the u.s. warned against any action that would undermine japanese administration of the territories at the same time secretary of state hillary clinton said it doesn't take a position on who has sovereignty over the islands and china has sent ships and planes to the area claiming it's exercising normal jurisdiction in its waters and airspace japan in turn said it may fire warning shots at foreign aircraft violating what it sees as its territory the founder of the international strategic alliances george who says if the u.s. and japan who are escalating the tensions. the u.s. has this role of being the policeman around the world and spreading the military forces all around the world now can they afford it but that's a different question because it seems like in order to to meet their military budget which is ever increasing they're probably going to have to borrow the money

and most likely they'll be borrowing the money from the chinese china has. been. asking japan to recognize and negotiate rather than rushing ratcheting up the tension of course japan and inviting electing is not going to help because he's very well known on ha och in this particular situation and the u.s. for its own strategic reason beauty upin as to prefer an ally and that's what contin agree this friction but i am not sure that i think cooler heads will will come and not go to war over these little specks of violence certainly china has never been. the aggressor in terms of in terms of these disputes. still ahead for you this hour a second chance u.s. president kicks off four years in office many wonder whether he'll deliver on at

least some of his old promises. and running out for your life later on we have the story about half naked man who fell from a train in the middle of a frozen forest and managed to survive that's coming up after a short break. there are twelve cities in the united states in which half of the people with hiv aids live with. this with this is a problem that. is substantially preventable it was like the big elephant in the room and nobody wanted to talk about they were really good public health campaigns that people were really focused on this problem you certainly should be able to have a lot less a lot less suffering. i

. welcome back it's good to have you with us barack obama has officially begun his second presidential term after being sworn in at the white house i don't monday he

will spell out his vision for the next four years of his inaugural address but he's been criticized for failing to keep old promises to end the wars the nations involved in to cut the u.s. deficit and to shut down the guantanamo bay detention center president he's going to to can reports there are even more pledges he's not addressed. it's generally thought that a second term six u.s. presidents free walks those handcuffs that kept them from doing great things in their first term because they had to think about getting reelected all the time in the last four years we've heard many times president obama's hands are tied on this issue word that issue suppose this election has on tied his hands we don't have a crystal ball to tell you what he's going to do with those free presidential hands but we may already see signs of what is to come president obama steps into his second term carrying a heavy load of promises along with the pledge comes the threat of another devastating war in the middle east for four years president obama pushed to

a great extent by israel. war with iran i will take no options off the tape and what i say. some believe the appointment of chuck hagel as defense secretary who is known to have been against a strike on iran may be a sign that the new obama administration will be less warmongering towards the word but two of the country's leading middle east experts orange convinced i would bet a certain amount of money we will hear the words all options are on the table coming out of his come out of his mouth in addition to the point that we have the appointment of john brennan at the cia who i think is someone who the israelis are just fine with who will continue many of the covert programs of course or drone program but many of the covert programs that would be under his under his authority at the cia that would be very much to israel's liking that will serve to undermine any attempt possibilities for. coming to terms of the islamic republic of iran john

brennan has been in charge of president obama's targeted assassinations program is a point of push the notorious war on terror in a different perspective and shows that it's far from over they want wars that will not redound against them at home politically so they don't want any more body bags they don't want more american troops. killed to the extent they want to prevent that they want to have all the soldiers sitting in alexandria virginia or los angeles or whatever and running the brony that are killing people whether it's afghanistan or yemen or iran or you know were else however over the next four years the administration's reach will extend far beyond the middle east as it is said to continue its pivot to asia as well as building a missile shield provocatively close to russia's borders last year in a hot mike moment president obama told russia's made that event if that in his second term he'd be more flexible to discuss moscow close serves.

but it could turn out to be flexibility to words only rather than action if. russia is still out of your post you would still sees it as some we're just going to go ahead a little while president obama may have more control over foreign policy domestically there is a greater chance of his agenda getting bogged down in congress like gun control and the executive orders are useless and legislative proposals and i suspect will not pass in this country i don't think it's in the offing and he were in the near future because we are a culture that is very deeply. in love with our guns in the last four years congress more than was attempted to sabotage the president on key economic issues including reaching a last minute deal as the country teetered on the edge of fiscal cliff presidents who have trouble with congress like to do international things because they have to worry about congress much less the president's actions so far have shown little

possibility that in the next four years he will be any more flexible on major foreign policy issues as far as is the mess that could join the many doubt whether he's never ending battle with congress will allow him to move significantly beyond inspiring speeches in washington i'm going to check. now with obama given a second chance to change antiwar activist john placers says there won't be any noticeable shift in the president's policy as is typical with politicians what they say is very different from what they do there is a broad bipartisan consensus on some of the most terrible. national security issues that affect us on the domestic front i mean for example warrantless wiretapping this is a policy that was why is it legal to size when the bush administration was in power and now the obama administration has you know uniformly embraced it the obama administration has aggressively refused to allow any checks and balances and has

even refused congressional requests to disclose how many americans have been spied on so things like that i mean a really troubling and i don't think he's going to get as much pushback from congress as as one might hope in the foreign policy realm obama as unfortunately continued much of his predecessor's excesses and recklessness we will see a continuation of foreign policy of extreme interventionism getting involved in every corner of the planet regardless of the consequences. israel seems to be bringing up a generation of young patriots money of government award bonuses to high school teachers who succeeded in motivating students to do their army service more on that head to our t. dot com. also online europe incased and snow is extremely low temperatures result in transport chaos and flights canceled across the continent.

syria's opposition coalition is struggling to form an interim government head of the group has flown to cateye are trying to secure promises a financial aid for in the rebel held areas and the opposition is mulling the idea of a government in exile with differences remaining over who should lead. the new executive this is serious foreign minister has called on office opponents to lay down arms and start a national dialogue with the opposition groups though rejected earlier calls for talks seeking more support from their western and arab backers instead of political analysts they are sad seen as the syrian opposition is incapable of forging a united front door you have. shunned these americans some elements in about our arab world where this. in table and even in. there and in syria pre-election through the press and then you however be remotely strongest

when you think no. party in syria in the boston brotherhood i'm very lucky star at least i do. not own the news when you go for missions you also have come up times there's an old canadian gribble forces in syria like bill gates preceded an army they are named you had to be a new structure on a little you had these from these moments right there's a direct quote sort won't try to. be within share of the secular bylines or corner members of your position so really we see the fault lines the politico old lines the opposition and there will be recounts the see the only thing they have in common is that they want to remove the government in damascus. now for some news making headlines around the world at least two insurgents have been killed during battle security forces in the afghan capital kabul close to the part of it building it follows a multiple suicide bomb attack on

a nearby traffic police compound at least four police and six civilians were injured in the assault the taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack the second in less than a week. a courthouse has been set on fire in the egyptian city of alexandria following day long clashes between riot police and protesters demonstrators were demanding justice in the trial of former security officers accused of killing story in the two thousand and eleven uprising violence first erupted when the presiding judge abruptly resigned without carrying out his duties . and venezuelan president hugo chavez is reported to be gaining strength and recovering well following respiratory complications after cancer surgery that's according to the vice president who says that he met with the leader and discuss important issues of state chavez should have taken his oath on the tenth of january but has not been seen in public since his latest operation in mid december

prompting outrage from the opposition demanding new elections. now catching a train became a matter of life and death for one russian man who fell from his carriage in subzero temperatures in a forest in russia's far east where earlier artie's tom barton told my colleague sean thomas the story. if we picture the scene we've got forty two year old valarie malkoff a lorry driver in this train clickety clack ing its way through the forests in the a more region in russia's far east at night they decide to go for a cigarette nothing special so he goes to the vestibule at the end of the carriage smokes his cigarette and then as he stays went to open the door to go back to his carriage except it was the wrong door and he falls out the back of the train so he rapidly realizes that he is not just running to catch up with the train but for his very life we managed to talk to him earlier he was a little bit embarrassed about the whole thing when i found out i only had parents

slippers and t. shirts i ran for seven kilometers i didn't curse minitab and i just saw the train was gone so i came quickly to my senses and started running so that i didn't freeze i ran on the railway track for about twenty or thirty minutes when i go to the nearest station their eyes are camped out after they saw a man with almost no clothes on women there quickly gave me tea and reported would just happen i didn't tell this to anybody my wife found out about the incident only after journalists called her i would imagine that the phone call he had with his wife after she had found help not from him but from journalists was possibly a little bit strained luckily he's ok no injuries no hypothermia he's back at work there will be an investigation into perhaps the whether the train guard had forgotten to lock the back door of the train which as we can see was probably quite a big oversight if it turns out that that was what happened it's also possibly one

factor that made him run a bit faster was that we've recently reported on in the far east in siberia there's been quite a lot of problems with packs of ravenous wolves being there so i imagine if we had that in mind if you knew about that possibly something to spur him on a bit faster. there are apps up our main news blog up next thirteen percent a special report on aids in america stay with us. georgian president mikheil saakashvili is military police have been accused by prosecutors of using a very unusual weapon to control members of the government a weapon so unusual that history great villains wouldn't even touch it that weapon was almost sexuality the georgian prosecutor's office claims that

a network of gay spies was set up to seduce certain politicians in order to surveil them and blackmail them the gay spies would tempt men in the government into going back to their apartments which were filled with hidden cameras and microphones to record information and create a not safe for work video to be used to put pressure on these officials this is truly one of the most unique and kind of gross weapons of political intrigue i've ever heard of i mean how many men in georgia politics could possibly fall into the spy trap you know if he actually did implement this scheme and it actually worked than machiavelli and von bismarck could have a thing or two to learn from president saakashvili but that's just my opinion. many in the black community have long memories and today have a clear distrust for government run health agencies part of what drives each of you

know community to his or his torkel perspective with disenfranchisement to ski he is very very much aware of the nines in their communities we still have many communities and we're talking about this is a conspiracy the government wanted to kill soft so maybe we still have people who still have that mindset people don't like to say. that a government would make an effort to destroy people but black people have had a history. of tusky you syphilis experience that was carried on by the federal government for thirty years one thousand nine hundred to one thousand nine hundred seventy two and people said at that time this is a way to get rid of the black population so that's horrible to have to think about . and that kind of planning but we have an entire museum in washington d.c. called the holocaust memorial museum which ag maintain is the most important using

in the united states that everybody should go to that museum because it's not just about the death. and people. it's about a government of intelligent people deciding to get rid of a population. they thought was a country a minute. to see adolf hitler use the term tear in that in german animal people subfield. as he spoke about the so much every viewer through which. so people think conspiracy theories conspiracy no doubt set up a conspiracy is when one segment makes a play and against the interests of another segment and the other segment doesn't know anything about it.